Podcast
Conversations on creating and harnessing the power of multidisciplinary teams.
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Sarah El-Atm is an expert on multidisciplinary teams in law. This series seeks to highlight the benefits and challenges of using diverse expertise in law firms. By collaborating with specialists in areas like technology, risk, and PR, lawyers can offer clients richer solutions and foster better team culture. Sarah emphasises that multidisciplinary teams need shared purpose and strong communication to succeed. The coming interviews will explore real-life insights on the creation and optimisation of multidisciplinary teams in legal practice.
Season 1
Episode 1: Breaking Silos to Supercharge Law Firms – Amber O'MearaIn this episode of This Multidisciplinary Life, Sarah El-Atm interviews Amber O'Meara, who shares how her background in marketing and client experience fuels her role as a “connector of dots” in innovation, where she leads projects like the Digital Academy for digital fluency and Mintcoin, an internal cryptocurrency that rewards curiosity. This conversation dives into how multidisciplinary teams at MinterEllison solve complex client challenges by blending diverse expertise.
Episode 2: Why Firms Are Moving To Whole-of-business & Beyond – Julian WebbIn this episode of This Multidisciplinary Life, Sarah El-Atm interviews Professor Julian Webb from the University of Melbourne about the evolution of multidisciplinary practices (MDPs) in law. Professor Webb discusses how regulatory disruption has allowed law firms to integrate diverse professional expertise, enabling them to move beyond traditional legal advice to holistic business solutions. He highlights the rise of incorporated legal practices and their role in fostering innovation and meeting client demands for comprehensive, cross-disciplinary services.
Episode 3: Navigate DISRUPTIVE CHANGE And Stay Happy | Mollie TregillisIn Episode 3 of This Multidisciplinary Life, Sarah El-Atm engages in a wonderfully future-facing conversation with Mollie Tregillis. Mollie is an ex-lawyer, corporate executive and consultant within the legal industry, with a vision for a new way to work: that we stop the ‘busy work’ and play to our strengths and energies.
Episode 4: Techniques To Lead A THRIVING Culture | Jemima HarrisIn Episode 4 of This Multidisciplinary Life, Sarah El-Atm has a fascinating chat with Jemima Harris—Chief Legal Officer at Megaport—about leading teams, building culture and purpose, designing process, and the value of being ‘the friendly spider in the middle of the web’.
Episode 5: How to FUTURE-PROOF For a New Era of Law | Mick SheehyIn Episode 5 of This Multidisciplinary Life, Sarah El-Atm catches up with Mick Sheehy, Lead Partner and Founder of PwC’s Australian and APAC NewLaw practices. NewLaw focuses legal departments on being ahead of the curve as changes in technology and resourcing pressures continue to escalate.
Episode 6: Is Professional Knowledge FALLING APART? | Julian WebbEpisode 6 of This Multidisciplinary Life features a second conversation—the first being back in Episode 2—with Professor Julian Webb from the University of Melbourne. It’s another brain-bending and thoroughly eye-opening conversation, discussing Mirko Nordegraaf’s idea of connective professionalism.
About the podcast
The ‘work’ part of our life is changing. It’s common for people to not stay in the same career their entire career anymore.
Sometimes, people become multidisciplinary – a lawyer turned designer, a physio who becomes an accountant, a doctor who becomes a world class cellist.
What about the future of work?
I believe that to be an expert knowledge worker in the future, you’re going to need to know how to work well in a multidisciplinary team. If you aspire to leadership, you’re going to need to know how to lead a multidisciplinary team… and probably know how to build them. You’ll need to understand how to capture the hearts of your team when you haven’t been trained in their discipline or work the way they work. The best CEOs understand this already. But we are not all the world’s best CEOs, and maybe we don’t need to be in order to lead a high-performing multidisciplinary team.
So what do we need then?
Multidisciplinary teams contain their own blend of perspective, nuance, language, and culture that are not replicated in homogenous teams. The Harvard Business Review have also published research to demonstrate MDTs outperform homogenous teams financially in an organisation.
This podcast is all about understanding what makes multidisciplinary teams perform well, where do the best MDTs thrive, and is there a specific industry that is better suited to MDTs.